Talk:Mélanie Ravenswood/@comment-6032121-20150522185903/@comment-25302463-20190415211951
Actually just for Fun I wanna go through the different possibilities of old-continuity's non-Hnery suspects for Phantom's identity (even though it's pretty much undeniably Henry, even in old-continuity). Also this is all like, 80% speculation cause pretty much all the real evidence points to Henry. -'Jasper Jones': In the OG backstory it was said that Mélanie was never let to leave the Manor's grounds so growing up her only friends were her father's servants, the Jones siblings who kept them on the grounds, Jasper of whom was even reffered to as "loyal manservant" on his epitaph. Now one of the most famous murder-mystery cliché's is "the Butler did it" and Jasper (being Henry's manservant) was the closest to the Ravenswood Butler. According to this theory, after the Ravenswood Parents died, Jasper went mad from grief and wished to keep his late-master's wishes to keep Mélanie on the grounds by murdering Jake and persuading Mélanie to wait in the manor so when he himself died, he became the Phantom who was intent on keeping his manor's wishes alive. It is even possible some of this obsession with Mélanie could have come from being fixated on Mélanie due to having known her her whole life. -'The Spirit of Big-Thunder': The supernatural spirit which posesses the land of Big Thunder Mountain. The Spirit of Big Thunder (also known as the Thunderbird) is the being believed to be responsible for the Thunder Mesa earthquake of 1860 out of anger for the town's mistreatment of it's lands, a result of the Ravenswood family's mining company. According to this theory, Big Thunder either extended itself to become the Phantom or used the remnants of Henry's spirit to corrupt his soul into becoming the Phantom, intent on tormenting his once-beloved daughter. We know that the Spirit of Big Thunder is vengeful, and he know that it has the power to haunt locations due to the ghost stories regarding Big Thunder Mountain. Also though this is REALLY reaching, the connection to Native-American myth and the appearance of a Raven could be in reference to this as in Native-American myth, Ravens are supernatural and represent change/metamorphasis. -'Arthur Ravenswood': A character from the original script who was never even referanced in the final attraction, Arthur Ravenswood (if he exists) was Henry's younger brother and the co-owner of Big Thunder Mining Co. In the OG backstory, Arthur was the level-headed businessman while Henry was the innovator. In this theory Arthur went mad out of hatred for his brother's family taking all the wealth and credit from the company he built and that he might have even been responsible for causing the dynamite explosion which triggered the 1860 earthquake that killed Henry and Martha. After this he murdered Jake out of sadistic glee for getting to torment his brother's legacy. The only thing which could allude to this theory in the attraction is the Phantom's dog Goliath who in the OG script was Arthur's loyal pet. -'Mélanie Ravenswood': Ok, this one is super tinfoil hat. According to this theory, Mélanie was driven insane by having had been raised in isolation by a morally corrupt father and distant mother who refused to let her be with the man she loved. Mélanie's parents's deaths and the destruction of the town in 1860 caused her to suffer a breakdown and on the day of her wedding, she assumed the split personality of the Phantom (or maybe was to an extent posessed by Henry or Big Thunder) and murdered her own fiancée, Jake. She never left the mansion due to there being nothing outside of it she cared about/it was the only home she knew and when she eventually died, she became two spirits, the Phantom and the Bride. Problem with this theory is that we see both Mélanie and the Phantom's corpses at the end of the ride. -'Inhuman Spirit summoned by Leota': K. So we really dont know what the Underworld Leota is doing in the Ravenswood's story, and if she's the same Leota as in HM. But, lets assume that she was brought on by Henry wanting to ward of Big Thunders's spirits or by Mélanie wishing to connect with her dead parents because those seem to be the most likely options. So, there's an old occultist belief that being reckless in a clairvoyance ritual can create a portal to Hell/the netherworld and this is often used as a backstory to real life Haunted Houses. SO, in this theory, the Phantom was inadvertedly summoned during a ritual by Leota and was malevolent in nature, being evil just cause.